Ask HN: Thoughts on life coaches in general and Tony Robbins in specific

The whole idea of life coaches seems like snake oil at first glance. And what people like Tony Robbins have done is get rich off of telling people how to achieve goals in their life. Most of the advice has very little scientific basis and seems to delivered very eloquently to unsuspecting minds and this trend seems to have a religious flavor in the sense that people immersed in it cannot accept discussion apart from praise.

There has been very little discussion on this topic on HN and the hacker community generally. Without turning HN into Quora, what are your thoughts on this topic?